


Take all the courage you have left

by thegoddessinzerogravity



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, just... someone hug her please
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-25
Updated: 2017-01-25
Packaged: 2018-09-19 19:39:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9457667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegoddessinzerogravity/pseuds/thegoddessinzerogravity
Summary: Sabine usually wasn't big on physical affection, but tonight seemed to be exceptional. In more ways than one.





	

After rising from his knees, Ezra hesitantly approached Sabine, reaching out one hand for her. She was jumpy about being touched at the best of times, and she seemed even less likely to respond positively to being held after her breakdown. 

He felt obligated to at least try offering comfort, and to his surprise, as soon as he touched her arm she seized him and threw both arms around his neck. He slowly raised his arms to her shoulder blades and squeezed, feeling her grip him even tighter in response. They were about the same height now, as compared to when he'd first joined the crew and had been significantly shorter than her. 

Sabine rarely accepted help when it was offered, and even more rarely even admitted that she needed help. He didn't know what to do, didn't know how to help her when her hiccuping sobs were still fresh in his mind. Her pain was spreading through the air, achingly raw and hot and he'd never felt more useless to support someone he loved than right now. 

He heard another set of footsteps approach, and looked up to see Kanan awkwardly hovering above them. "I'm sorry," he said quietly to Sabine, still clutching Ezra's chest. He seemed to want to say more, but she shifted her position on him and mumbled "can we go home now?" 

"We should probably wait until it's lighter out, Sabine. It will be far safer to travel in a few hours." Fenn Rau had stood up at some point and was standing to the side, looking at her sympathetically and all of a sudden he felt glad that she'd hidden her vision from them. Sympathy was too close to pity, she'd informed him at some point in the past, and she hated pity. 

"Okay."

"Hey, Bean . . ." he pulled back from the hug slightly and patted her shoulder. "Let me look at your hand." She jerked slightly with surprise, removed her hands from his back and looked at the lightsaber slash on her armband like she'd forgotten it was there. 

She didn't resist when he pulled her over to where he and Rau had been sitting, just held out her hand. He spent the next few seconds carefully tugging on the armband, not wanting to risk aggravating the skin underneath. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the burn was minor, barely a small red patch on the back of her hand. "I'll just put bacta on it and it should be good pretty quickly," he informed her as he seized the bag he'd brought along with them. 

"Which is a relief, really," he continued as he dug around in the pack. "Hera's going to be mad enough already when Kanan brings you back crying with a burned hand."

He'd been hoping the attempt at humor would lift her spirits a little bit, but her frown deepened. "Hey, Ezra? Don't tell Hera I cried."

"Why? She's not going to judge you." He started wrapping the bandage around her knuckles. 

"I don't like crying." He didn't know how to respond to that, still reeling slightly from the revelations and the palpable pain flooding off of Sabine in waves. He'd always been particularly sensitive to how the other Spectres were feeling, a side affect of his skills in connecting with others through the Force.

After Hera had almost been killed on Concord Dawn, he'd been complaining of phantom pains along his ribs for most of the day, and when Zeb had been trapped on Geonosis, he'd been shivering for hours no matter how many blankets he covered himself with. 

"Hera loves you, a lot. No one will think any better or worse of you for crying." Especially after a night like she'd had, but he didn't say that last part out loud. "We all love you. No matter what."

She tilted her head to look at him, and suddenly he was afraid he'd made everything worse, that she'd cry again or retreat even further into herself and never come out. After a couple seconds of deliberation, she scooted forward and held out her arms, and he didn't waste a second before moving forward to accept the gesture. 

She buried her head in his shoulder again and he squeezed her as tightly as he dared, wondering if he was imagining the first rays of true daylight starting to creep over her horizon.

**Author's Note:**

> Trials of the Darksaber is still an incredibly good episode, and Tiya & Freddie were amazing.


End file.
